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Comment by kqr2 | Hacker News Reader

I've seen people return crazy things at Costco:

- Bag of potatoes almost completely empty. The guy had a few potatoes that were sprouting roots. Costco refunded the cost of the entire bag.

- Cart full of sushi platters. Obviously somebody bought it for a party and didn't finish it. Again Costco refunded.

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We all pay the price for these customers misusing the return policy. Companies got to have a decent enforcement of these policies.

I think the idea is that not many people will actually misuse the return policy, and those that do make the tiniest fraction of the returners. Therefore, it's easier just to accept all returns to speed up the returns and eliminate complaints.

Refusing refunds has costs too.

Incremental levels of management get involved and sometimes a lawyer. By that point everybody loses. But that's enough for an idiot customer. All on top of lost future sales.

Buying back their unsaleable junk is quick. Costco tracks customers so it's fairly easy for them to track abuse and find a cut off point.

Nordstrom was famous for refunding customers' money. One person brought in a used tire (Nordy's sells clothes) and was refunded his money. A Nordy's salesman I know told me that people would return obviously well worn shoes and would get a refund, no questions asked.

Nordstrom doesn't do that anymore. Too many abusers.

One of the outdoor retailers (REI?) had to give up their "No Questions Asked" return policy because of idiots doing things like buying a tent, using it for a trip, and then returning it.

LLBean changed their lifetime guarantee a few years back after people would return worn-out from normal use items for a refund or replacement.

I used to run a gourmet food retailer. We would refund anything, no questions (except what we needed to improve).

The secret to this policy was that we had gross (?) margins of 60%+. Throwing away a $20 product would cost us maybe $8.

The other secret was that for the few incidents where we felt someone was trying to scam us, the next time you wanted to order, just as you were about to enter your credit card number, you would be redirected to our competition.

People who thinks it’s ok to do this need to hear the word no.

This behavior just drives up the price for everyone. There should really be a limit on what can be returned.

It seems clear that Costco customers are willing to pay higher prices for this feature, though. Costco is not that inexpensive compared to e.g. Sam's Club, a large part of their reputation is based on their excellent return policy and customer service in general.

These are probably rare enough its easy to consider just a cost of doing business. The toilet paper thing seems like it would be happening a lot these days.

> - Cart full of sushi platters. Obviously somebody bought it for a party and didn't finish it. Again Costco refunded.

That's a happy customer, damn.

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